


Brothers

by Dragonsquill (dragonsquill)



Series: Prompts and AUs [15]
Category: The Hobbit (Jackson Movies), The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Kitten AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-22
Updated: 2017-12-22
Packaged: 2019-02-18 06:37:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 979
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13094496
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dragonsquill/pseuds/Dragonsquill
Summary: This is for Linane, and it is her fault because she says my kittens look like they should've been named Fili and Kili.  So.





	Brothers

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Linane](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Linane/gifts).



Fíli wasn’t impressed when his parents first brought Kíli home.

They thought he would be. They cooed and sat on the floor and told Fíli how lucky he was to have a new friend, and how much he’d love having someone to play with. Then they opened the horribly other-cat smelling box and released from it a ball of black fluff with a cheerful ribbon around its neck. 

A kitten.

Another kitten.

In HIS home!

He had just finished rubbing his chin on everything! That morning! How DARE they?!

Fíli, as any good half-grown cat would, arched his back and let out a hiss. 

“Back off!” he warned. “This is my house! Get back in your box!”

“Now Fíli!” his mother said in the human garble that all cats learned even if they refused to speak such an ugly language, so lacking in nuance. “Be nice to Kíli! He’s going to be your best friend!” She gently settled the kitten on his little feet, adjusting his bow. “He’s a Christmas present, just for you, so you won’t be lonely when we’re at work.”

Fíli stalked forward, golden hair all akimbo. 

The kitten looked at him. Or…Fíli thought it did. The kitten was all fluff, more a smudge than a proper cat, and the eyes were hard to-aha! There they were. Innocent and big and round, as if Fíli was going to fall for that. “Hi,” the kitten said, not at all suitably frightened of a larger, established teen cat in the home. 

“In. Your. Box.” Fíli ordered.

The kitten fluffed up even more, back arching, legs straightening. He looked like something that had escaped from under the sofa because Fíli hated the Loud Thing that cleaned them up. “I don’t want to,” he said clearly. “I don’t like it in that box.”

The absolute cheek!

“I’m bigger than you! And you have to do what I say!” Fíli, completely within his rights, reached out and smacked the disrespectful little poof right in the face.

“Kíli!” his mother cried, but his father caught her hand and said, “It’s fine, he has to establish he’s boss and then they’ll get along.”

Kíli flicked his short, ridiculous bottlebrush of a tail. “I do not. Not if I don’t want to.” 

Fíli pounced. He moved so fast that the kitten didn’t see it coming. Fíli didn’t even wiggle his hindquarters in preparation, he just attacked, rolling the kitten on his back and pinning him to the ground. “Oh really?” he asked, his low merowrrr infinitely smug.

The kitten’s breaths came in hard little gasps, but he didn’t try to get away, nor did he give in, as any kitten with an ounce of common sense would do. “Yes. Really.”

Fíli stared at the kid and flexed his claws in warning against the black fur. “You do realize you’re pinned?”

The kitten’s eyes, still blueish gray because he was so young, were wide and scared, but he said, “Yes.”

“And that I could remove your insides?”

The kitten considered this a moment. “Yes.”

“But you still think you can do what you want? And live in my house? And rub against my things? And be petted by my people?”

The kitten shivered, obviously frightened, but he tilted his little head back and said, “Yes. Because they told me you’re my big brother and you’d take care of me.”

Fíli froze. His ears flicked back and forth, as if trying to find some sound in the room to explain this kitten’s madness. “Who said?”

The kitten turned his head toward Fíli’s parents. “Mom and Dad. They said you’re my big brother and we’d be best friends and we’d live here together.” He drooped, his little body going properly limp. “Were they lying?” he whispered, so low only Fíli’s superior ears could hear it.

Fíli blinked. “Well. I.” He lifted one paw, and then another, backing away slowly. The kitten stayed on his back, looking as if someone had just broken his tiny kitten heart. 

“He’s hurt!” Fíli’s mother cried, reaching out and stroking the kitten’s chest carefully.

“I think he’s just fine, Dis,” Fíli’s father said. “Just a little surprised to meet his big brother.”

Fíli turned wide blue eyes on his mother and father. He wasn’t supposed to let just anyone in his territory. He remembered that all too well from his time at the shelter. And this kid smelled like shelter – too many dogs and cats and humans all in one place. “Big brother?” he asked slowly. 

The kitten rolled over and inched forward, butt up but head down, like a proper cat for once. “I always wanted a big brother,” he purred, tail twitching with excitement despite his attempt to be appropriately subservient. “Everybody had brothers and sisters but I was just one.” 

Fíli narrowed his eyes at the kitten. Just one. Fíli had been just one, too. He’d be found in the Smelly Place, all alone, because the other kittens weren’t alive anymore. “And you want me to be your brother?”

“Yes, please!” the kitten answered, mouth falling open in an excited little kitten grin.

Fíli twitched his tail. “I….” he looked at his parents, at his mother watching him so hopefully, and then at the kitten.

All alone, he’d said.

“Maybe…maybe I could be.”

The kitten leapt to his feet, all bounce and life and getting inappropriately close and sniffing Fíli’s face and he had no manners at all! “Yay!” he purred. “I’m Kíli!”

Fíli sighed as Kíli nipped his ear in hello. 

This was going to be a lot of work.

But it…might be fun.

Maybe.

He’d at least give it a chance before kicking Kíli’s little kitten butt. But first...

Fili pounced and caught the ridiculous ribbon in his teeth.

He'd make sure his little brother didn't look so silly on his first day home.


End file.
